R.I.’s most expensive home for sale is Newport’s Seafair at $19M

AN AERIAL VIEW OF Seafair, the most expensive home on the market in Rhode Island right now at $19 million. The property, which is on Ocean Avenue in Newport, is being marketed by Lila Delman Real Estate International. / COURTESY LILA DELMAN REAL ESTATE  INTERNATIONAL
AN AERIAL VIEW OF Seafair, the most expensive home on the market in Rhode Island right now at $19 million. The property, which is on Ocean Avenue in Newport, is being marketed by Lila Delman Real Estate International. / COURTESY LILA DELMAN REAL ESTATE INTERNATIONAL

NEWPORT – The most expensive home for sale in the state is the $19 million Seafair at 254 Ocean Ave., a Depression-era mansion with Gilded Age roots overlooking the ocean.
The 15,851-square-foot property, built in 1936, features 14 bedrooms and 14 full bathrooms, along with a carriage house, pool and tennis court. It’s on nine acres and stands out for its unusual elliptical shape.
Seafair is being marketed by Lila Delman Real Estate International in Narragansett. Melanie Delman, president and broker of the agency, described the mansion as “the last of the Gilded Age properties” to be built.
Delman said recently that the property has been on the market for two years, but is generating “extreme interest.” Buyers of luxury properties also look at places such as Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons to make their purchases, and she said a property such as Seafair stands out for its value and historical significance.
She said it was built by James Mackenzie Jr., an architect that also worked on an improvement project of the Statue of Liberty in the 1940s, for Denver mining heir Verner Zevola Reed Jr., who became vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank and ambassador to Morocco under President Ronald Reagan.
“It’s an oceanfront incomparable location,” Delman said.
In addition, buyers can scoop up a $3 million, 2,518-square-foot three-bedroom condominium residence on the property.
The property is currently owned by Richard Bready, the former Nortek Inc. CEO.

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